Épée, Individual, Men

The format of the event was four rounds of pools. Bouts were for one touch and a double touch counted as a defeat for both fencers. If there was a tie in the number of victories and the number of fencers who were tied was greater than the number who could qualify, the tie was resolved by using the results of the tied fencers in their bouts with each other as if another pool had been fenced. For example, in Pool One, Antonidas and Blake were tied with 4 victories for fifth place in the pool but only five qualified. Antonidas had beaten Blake in the pool and so he was the one who was promoted.

The épée events were somewhat weak competitions, as the best épée fencers in the world were the French and the Italians. As noted above, the French boycotted the entire Olympic fencing competition. And the Italians refused to compete in the épée, upset with the rules. The Italian Fencing Federation had proposed that the blade of the épée be lengthened to 94 cm., and when this proposal was rejected, they refused to participate in the épée events.

With the French and Italians absent, the Belgians did well, advancing four fencers to the final. Paul Anspach of Belgium won the gold medal. Anspach competed as a fencer at the Olympics of 1908, 1912, 1920, and 1924, winning five Olympic medals as follows: 1908 épée team bronze; 1912 épée individual gold; 1912 épée team gold; 1920 épée team silver; and 1924 épée team silver.